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Future of Audio in Cinema
The Future of Audio in Cinema Audio in the cinema is quite diverse in its current format, there are different systems in cinemas all over the country. The standardised system for cinemas was Dolby Digital 5.1 but from August 2012 cinemas began fitting the Dolby 7.1 system, the process of installation nationwide may take until 2016 to be complete. The Dolby Atmos system is fitted at the Empire Leicester Square cinema and this is the only cinema in England to be fitted with this system. Dolby seems to be at the top with their systems, however there are some systems that could prevent Dolby from dominating. These systems are the Hamasaki 22.2 system and the Barco Auro 11.1 system. The Hamasaki 22.2 system rivals Dolby Atmos and possibly provide a better spacial sound but at a cost. Also the Auro 11.1 system rivals Dolby Atmos, with a host of films being made using its system and uses a channel based system as opposed to Dolby's object based system. The future of these three systems are debatable, which system will it be picked up and become the standard audio system? Which audio system is going to be the future is also questionable as well as what the format will be used in the future, will it be 3D spatial audio or will it go in a whole new direction. The stakes are high. The winner of this new spatial sound war could potentially dominate big screen audio for a long time, and make a big profit from studios and exhibitors. Dolby Atmos ''' This system was created in 2012 and has been fully installed in only one cinema in the UK, which is in Leicester Square Empire, London, and over one hundred screens worldwide. Dolby Atmos is a system that supports up to 128 discrete audio tracks and up to 64 unique speaker feeds. This allows a variety of options for the available tracks and speakers such as height and depth information to be produced giving a unique experience; traditional playback is given in a 5.1 or 7.1 mix. I contacted Dolby and spoke to James Seddon who is a manager at Dolby and a cinema designer, he told me that “the system has up to 64 speakers and a minimum of 32 speakers” (as illustrated below) this depending on the size of the venue as each Dolby Atmos system is different due to various different sizes of cinemas and the layouts of cinemas which would all need to be taken into account when installing Dolby Atmos. Another factor being that due to the size of each cinema the full 64 speakers could not be installed, due to the room acoustics as it would complete ly ruin the audio if a huge amount of speakers were put into a small cinema. James S eddon also told me that the Dolby Atmos system is “adaptable depending on the venue”. This shows how versatile the Dolby Atmos System is as it could be adapted to any cinema, so this system could have the potential to become the future standardised format for audio systems in cinema. As there is no standardised way for speaker arrangement, the only way to describe it would be the speakers all around the cinema, as you can see from the picture, this particular cinema was fitted with 5 speakers at the front of the cinema 9 speakers down the left and right side, 6 speakers at the back of the cinema and then two beams going over the audience starting at the front of the cinema and finishing at the back of the cinema. So this particular cinema has 47 speakers, however they can go up to 64 speakers and include additional screen speakers and extra bass speakers as well. This adaptive layout and amount of speakers produces really good audio. There are only a few selective movies available to go and watch that have been made in Dolby Atmos, other films can be up mixed to Dolby Atmos as well but obviously this wouldn't sound as good as if it had been made in it. I went to see A Good Day to Die Hard and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, both of which have been made in Dolby Atmos, and in my opinion it was a truly unique experience, providing really impressive sound. I found it made the movie more enjoyable as it really sucked me in and every noise was very realistic. '''Hamasaki 22.2 The Hamasaki 22.2 system was made by a man called Kimio Hamasaki. He created the format consisting of a 24 speakers system, two of which are bass channels. The concept of the 22.2 system is that the 22 speakers have been split up into 3 groups, the first group is called the Lower layer and consists of 3 speakers on the ground. The second group is called the Middle layer and consists of 10 speakers located all around the room at ear level. Finally the third group is called the Upper layer and this layer consists of 9 speakers, which are located all around the room above the audience near the ceiling. This format is a standardised format and there is no room for adapting. Barco Auro 11.1 (13.1) The Barco, Auro 11.1 system creates an immersive sound in 3D by using a three dimensional 11.1 channel speaker layout. The design is similar to that of the Hamasaki 22.2 system, featuring 3 layer of speakers. However it does differ in the locations of these layers, the Auro 11.1 systems first layer is called 'Surround Sound' and is positioned at ear level with sounds coming from the horizontal plain around the audience. The second layer is cal led the 'Height' and is located above the first layer, nearer the ceiling and reveals direct sounds and height reflections, these reflection help understand the sounds originating in the first layer. Finally the third layer is called 'top' and is located directly above the audience on the ceiling. The system uses the three layers to recreate the most efficient three dimensional sound format with a minimum number of speakers. The first Auro 11.1 system was installed in may 2010 in Galaxy Studios which is the home of the Auro 3D format. The system was launched in October 2010 as the spatial audio conference in Tokyo. In July 2011, Skywalker Sound installed the Auro 11.1 system then by January 2013 50 installations had been made in cinemas worldwide. The first movie to be mixed in the Auro 11.1 system, was Lucasfilm's Red Tails which was released in January 2012. Then later that year in November Dreamworks Animation announced that it was going to release 15 of its movies in the Auro 11.1 system. Since the release of Red Tails in 2012 it has had 8 other movies been made with the system, including Oz the Great and Powerful and the Croods. This shows that the System has had some success with getting movies to use their system. The nominees are... The Hamasaki 22.2 system provides a realistic 3D audio sound over its 22 channels. Arguably it does provide a greater spatial sound that the other two systems, however it is much more expensive to install than the Dolby and Barco Aura systems. This is quite a big drawback as the 22.2 system is standardised and there is no real room for adaptation. So cinemas that would want the 22.2 system installed would have to have a perfect room design for the system, or they would have to completely refurbish the cinema and design it to meet the needs of this 22.2 system. Also another drawback would be that the system would be very expensive to install, however it would give an truly amazing spatial sound. The Barco Auro 11.1 system is probably Dolbys closest competitor. Their system is channel, rather than object based. With this system whatever is on that track stays on that track, it does not vary, nothing gets added or taken away from it. It has a perfect match for visual 3D and makes natural sounds all around the listener and achieves this without the need of using complex and expensive object based technology. The system also has aspirations of getting into the home cinema, whereas the Dolby Atmos system has no intention of doing this. The System has has some success having over 50 installations and an increasing number of directors are embracing the new audio format, with movies such as, Red Tails, OZ the Great and Powerful and the Croods. This shows that the system rivals the Dolby system as it is also getting movies made. The system is fully compatible with existing standards. Overall This system is cheap to install, achieves a great spatial sound and uses minimal speakers. The Dolby Atmos system is the most popular system out of the three at the moment, being the most successful in terms of getting new movies made with their system achieving some blockbuster titles, such as Brave, Life of Pi, The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, A Good Day to Diehard, Ironman 3 and Epic. It is also has been successful in terms of system installations, achieving hundreds worldwide. This however could be down to Dolby reputation, or the fact that their system is very adaptive and flexible being able to be installed in any cinema, as each Dolby Atmos system is different due to various different sizes of cinemas and the layouts of cinemas which would all need to be taken into account when installing Dolby Atmos. The system used object based technology which differs from the Barco Auro system and can use some interesting techniques. Overall the Atmos system is a good system, very flexible, uses object based technologies and is already quite successful. And the winner is..... The Hamasaki 22.2 system is a great system providing and excellent spatial, however due to the system not being very flexible as it can not be installed in every cinema as opposed to the dolby system and the fact the installations of this system are very expensive, personally I do not think that many cinemas would opt for this option as there are systems available that are less expensive and provide a good sound, sadly in this economic climate, I believe cinemas will be unable to finance the installation of the Hamasaki 22.2 system, so at present this system wont be widely installed in the near future. The Barco Auro 11.1 system is also a great system, using three layers of speakers to achieve a good spatial sound and very convincing natural sounds. It has already made a small success in getting movies made with the system and quotes many more by Dreamworks. This system in my opinion is a dark horse in this battle, and could potentially stop and overtake Dolby as it is gaining in popularity, it gains a great sound using minimal speakers, Overall I would not be surprised to see this system being used more and more. However the Dolby Atmos system is a very successful system, with key advantages over the other two systems which could make it more successful. One of these advantages is the flexibility of the system, being able to be installed in any cinema is a huge selling point, I feel this system would be chosen over the Hamasaki 22.2 system as it is much easier to instal and doesnt require the cinema to be refurbished. Dolby also have a good reputation having the standardised format for cinemas a few years ago and along with the new flexible Atmos system, it does seem that this system is likely to be chosen over the other two systems as it shows at the moment. The future does seem to be heading to object based technologies which is used by Dolby Atmos, so I do think that this system will become the new standardised format for cinema. Although I do believe the Barco Auro 11.1 system to rise up and compete with Dolby even more so.